


Seven Down

by Vickery



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25620136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vickery/pseuds/Vickery
Summary: The stupid crossword was doing his head in.
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Comments: 5
Kudos: 60





	Seven Down

**Author's Note:**

> So, I haven't written anything in about 10 years but this idea has been in my head for way too long and I needed to get it out. I'm not a huge fan of how it turned out, but it is what it is. Some dialogue is taken from Lost City. This has not been betaed, so all mistakes are mine. Feedback appreciated!

The stupid crossword was doing his head in. He only made the bet with Carter so he could have an excuse to spend time with her, see her smile or get her to roll her eyes at him because of some intentional mistake he made. She knew it was intentional, too. She never did buy into his pretending to be dumb act.

  
It was just one of the many reasons why he… ‘no point in going there now, Jack’, he thought to himself morosely. Not with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Again.

  
He rubbed his face with his hand in frustration and scribbled something for 7 down. His eyes were concentrated on the paper before him, but he could hear Daniel getting up and coming up to him, book in hand, dreading the upcoming linguistic interrogation.

  
“Does this mean anything to you?” Daniel asked, predictably.

  
“No.” Jack answered curtly.

  
“Could you at least look at it?” Daniel retorted, silently hoping Jack would start to cooperate and help him.

  
Jack, however, was determined to nip this particular discussion in the bud as fast as possible. “Daniel, I don’t speak Ancient. Yet. And when I do, eventually, you know I’ll never understand it.”

  
“You have to try.” Daniel encouraged.

  
“Look, last time things just popped into my fron.” Jack replied, slightly exasperated.

  
“Fron is head.”

  
“Now you see, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  
Daniel had had just about enough of Jack dodging his questions so he grabbed the crossword, much to Jack’s annoyance. The familiar scene of the two men bickering was what greeted Sam when she walked into Daniel’s office. She smiled and shook her head in fondness.

  
“I thought you were supposed to be…” she started, but got interrupted by Daniel, who noticed something strange about Jack’s answers. While they continued to discuss the subject in their typical fashion, Sam slowly took the crossword from Daniel. If the Colonel was adamant to keep working on it, she was curious to see if he’d get at least something right or would he continue to goad her with nonsensical answers.

  
Not that she minded all that much. Or at all. It was nice to feel some of that old camaraderie between them, the teasing. She was so stuck in her thoughts that she almost missed it, but then a specific answer caught her attention, making her raise her eyebrows. And then she read the clue. Her eyes widened and her breath hitched slightly. She quickly put the crossword down on the table.

  
The Colonel and Daniel suddenly both stopped talking, turning to her and noticing her reaction.

  
“Sam, are you OK?” Daniel asked worriedly, stepping up to her and putting a hand on her shoulder.

  
“I, I… I’m fine.” she stuttered. “I just have to go to my lab real quick.” And then she was gone, leaving behind her two puzzled colleagues.

  
“Well, that was… odd.” Daniel said, a slight frown on his face. Jack watched the whole exchange silently and stood up to pick up the crossword.

  
He looked it over and there they were, staring straight at him. The clue for 7 down, ‘celestial body’ and his accompanying answer in bold, black letters – SAMANTHACARTER. He sighed heavily and rubbed his face again, the frustration from before only augmenting.

  
“Crap.”

  
__________________

He needed to talk to her. He had no idea what he was going to say, but he couldn’t let this be another one of those situations where they gloss over it and let it go. He wondered briefly if that wasn’t his duty as her CO, as her friend. To protect her and sweep it all under the rug, like he’d been doing ever since he’d had to shoot her with a zat and watch her die at his hand.

  
But he was tired. Tired of the war with the Goa’uld, tired from the effects of the Ancient’s knowledge stuck in his head. So before he could change his mind, he stepped in the elevator and pressed the floor for Carter’s lab.

  
He blamed Daniel. Him and his books. Couldn’t he have left him in peace with his crossword? He blamed the Ancients too. All that information and wisdom and it couldn’t even help him solve a simple crossword. Instead it just got him in an even bigger mess.

  
While he was assigning blame to people in his head, Jack arrived at Sam’s lab. He looked inside but it was empty. Her laptop and all her things were still there, seemingly untouched. He swept half the base until it occurred to him to check if she was still actually on base. He calls the sergeant topside and receives confirmation that Carter left about an hour ago.

  
Again alone with his thoughts in the elevator, Jack wonders where she could be. He decides he’ll try his place and hers and if he still doesn’t find her, he’ll try her cell. Although he’d much rather do this in person than over the phone.

  
Driving in his truck down the mountain he mulls over what he’s going to say. Options range from opening up the room they closed three years ago to completely abandoning his previously found courage and determination and denying it all. Frustration bubbles up at his indecision. His head feels all muddled with the Ancient language. Whatever he does say to her, he’s damned if it won’t be in regular old English.

  
He arrives at a red light and needs to make a decision. Going left would take him to hers and going right to his place. His gut tells him turn right and he does, because his gut is the one thing he could always rely on. Those instincts soon prove to be correct as he sees her Volvo parked in his driveway.

  
While he was searching for her, day turned into night. The skies were clear, so Jack decided to follow his intuition once again and headed for the roof. Climbing up, he was rewarded with the sight of blonde hair and his 2IC looking through the telescope.

  
“Hi.” he greeted softly.

  
Sam turned around, got up from her chair and approached him, looking like she was expecting him all along. Her response was equally soft, yet determined, looking him in the eye and hoping he wouldn’t look away.

  
“Hi.”

  
A silence descended upon the pair and for a long while, they just looked at each other. Looked in a way they couldn’t allow themselves while they were at the SGC, while they were Colonel and Major.

  
Jack knew he would have to say something sooner or later, no matter how much he was enjoying the fact that he could just be with Sam and look into her beautiful blue eyes. He opened his mouth to start talking, but words wouldn’t come out. He repeated the motion a few times, only succeeding to look like a fish out of water.

  
Well. This was going well.

  
To Sam’s credit, she waited patiently and judging by the corners of her lips edging up slightly, she was a bit amused at the whole situation. Finally, she decided to pity him and his inability to start the conversation.

  
“I figured I’d try my luck again. I don’t think even we’re so unlucky to get interrupted a second time.” she drawled, glancing downstairs, alluding to their impromptu meetup a few days ago.

  
“You never know with Daniel.” Jack smirked. He really did have the worst timing. Sam laughed lightly in acknowledgement, turning Jack’s smirk into a genuine smile. The things this woman did to him with just a simple smile.

  
He really needed to get his act together and say something. Why couldn’t he be more eloquent in these situations? With a slight sigh of frustration, he rubbed the back of his head with his hand.

  
“Listen, Sam…” he started.

  
“Did you mean it?” she asked suddenly, interrupting him, gazing into his brown eyes, searching for any sort of clue as to how he felt.

  
Did he mean it? The words ‘celestial body’ rang through his head and it seemed ridiculous. But the words weren’t important, it was what they represented. Of course, he has always been physically attracted to her. He’s felt that spark of attraction that very first briefing and many, many times after. But when he looked back into her eyes, he saw an openness there that got his heart beating like he was sprinting from a battalion of Jaffa, with her right alongside him.

  
His mind flashed back to her waking up in the infirmary after her ordeal on the Prometheus, calling him Jack. The awkward, stunted conversation in the elevator a few weeks later. Her humming about Pete cutting him like a blade. The way she looked to him for comfort after they lost Janet. After a staff blast almost took him down for good as well.

  
All those things seemed so clear now. If he had just been able to look past his pain and self-doubt, he wouldn’t have pushed her into the arms of another man. If he had just given her a sign, an inkling that she meant as much to him as he did to her, she wouldn’t have given Pete a sniff. So when she asked him did he mean it… the answer was simple. Regulations and consequences be damned. He closed the distance between them and finally spoke.

  
“Yes.”

  
He breathed the word out slowly, feeling a huge weight come off his shoulders. Sam’s eyes closed and a single tear rolled out. Jack cupped her cheek and wiped it away.

  
“Sam, look at me.” he urged her and she complied, turning her cheek into his hand. Jack continued caressing her cheek with his thumb and enjoyed the feel of her soft skin on his.

  
“I’ve been looking for you for hours with the intention of not hiding anymore. Taking a chance.” He leaned his forehead against her, willing to find the right words. “And here I found you, at my house, taking a chance on me.” Her eyes were shining and she was smiling up at him. God, he loved her.

  
“Just in case I haven’t made myself clear…” he wanted to continue, but he was cut short by her lips on his and her arms around his neck. Only momentarily confused, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back, trying to show her what she made him feel. They broke apart when air became a necessity again, smiling and panting.

  
“I think you’ve made yourself quite clear… Jack” she said, aiming her megawatt smile at him, delighting him hearing his name on her lips. He marveled at their situation and how it came to be and decided he didn’t care. Sam was in his arms and even though they didn’t say the words, their feelings for each other were very clear. One detail of this was bizarre though, and it made him snicker.

  
“What’s so funny?” Sam asked, nuzzling her nose against his neck, enjoying just being with him.

  
“I can’t believe this has finally happened because of a dumb crossword.” Jack answered.

  
“Are you saying I don’t have a ‘celestial body’, Jack O’Neill?” Sam said, slightly glaring at him and desperately trying not to smile.

  
Jack accepted her challenge and looked at her slowly, traveling all over her body, ending at her eyes and making her blush. He put his lips next to her ear and whispered.

  
“Samantha Carter… you are one hot piece of ass.”

  
Sam laughed uncontrollably, provoking the exact reaction Jack was hoping for.

  
“No giggling!”


End file.
